Despite some worry I was able to get the Emotiv Epoc headset working. Prior to my arrival at the 3DIA lab, it had not been in use for several months. Upon inspection I found that there was quite a bit of corrosion buildup around the sensors. My first suggestion was purchasing a new sensor pack but the Emotiv website listed them as sold-out. This was problematic since waiting for a new one to arrive may have taken too much time out of my limited eleven weeks stay with the team here in Laramie, Wyoming.

I then turned my thoughts on to how to get the sensors reading again. After scouring the Emotiv Epoc forums and finding similar questions posed to the forum administrators (several of whom actually worked on developing the Epoc) I was able to find several methods of cleaning the salt buildup from saline usage (a requirement for the sensors to be able to read brainwaves). After several rounds of dismantling, cleaning, reconstructing, and testing, I was finally able to have all of the sensors reading again. Hopefully the headset will stay fixed, saving us time and money.

If you are attempting to clean buildup out of the Epoc please make sure you only clean the convex side. This is important because of the special polymer on the concave side that minimizes noise and allows for clear readings is very sensitive.